1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a photographing apparatus such as a digital camera, which photoelectrically converts an optical image of an object into an image signal, preforms image processing if necessary, and records the image signal in a recording medium. This invention also relates to a method for recording an image by the photographing apparatus, and a method for reproducing the image by the photographing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a recording medium for use in a digital camera, not only a memory built in the digital camera but also a memory card detachably installed in the digital camera, have been known. By using the memory card, a user can consecutively photograph by replacing the memory cards, and the image data can be stored in these memory cards.
However, the capacity of such a normal memory card is about 2M or 8M, therefore, the number of the flames recordable in each memory card is limited to only 40 to 160. Thus, in order to store these images, it is required to transfer these image data to a recording medium having a large recording capacity, such as an optical magnetic disk, a CD-R or a hard disk. In this case, the recording medium can store images approximately 100 times as compared to a normal memory card, though it depends on which recording medium having a large capacity is used.
Under such circumstances, a digital camera system, in which a digital camera is connected to a personal computer (PC) having a large capacity recording medium so that the image data photographed by the digital camera is transferred to the large capacity recording medium by a driver software of the PC side, has been provided.
However, in a conventional digital camera system, in a case where the digital camera is once connected to the PC, even if a recording medium such as a memory card is installed in the digital camera and the recording medium can record a photographed image, the image data photographed by the digital camera is recorded in a recording medium in the PC side. Thus, in a case where the digital camera is frequently connected to or disconnected from the PC, some of the image data are recorded in the digital camera side, and the other thereof are recorded in the recording medium of the PC side. This causes troublesome management of the recorded images.
Furthermore, in order to transfer the image data from the digital camera to the PC or to record the image data in a recording medium of the PC side, it is required to follow a troublesome procedures including appropriately physically connecting the digital camera to the PC and then activating the driver software of the PC, resulting in a poor operability.